Late payments on ‘categorical’ funds detrimental

Sunday

Jul 21, 2013 at 10:00 PMJul 21, 2013 at 10:20 PM

GALESBURG — Though state aid to the public school system has dwindled in recent years, that alone does not paint the whole picture of districts’ financial woes. Some school districts are waiting on grant money that is in some cases is six months late.

By Joe WardGalesburg Register-Mail

Editor's Note: This is the latest installment in the Deadbeat Illinois series, where reporters from GateHouse Illinois newsrooms examine the real-world effects of the state's failure to pay its bills. Each Monday, we share the stories of those affected. See more on the Deadbeat Illinois Facebook page.

GALESBURG — Though state aid to the public school system has dwindled in recent years, that alone does not paint the whole picture of districts’ financial woes. Some school districts are waiting on grant money that is in some cases is six months late.

Grants and other “categorical” funds for school functions such as transportation and special education are a part of the $6.8 billion backlog of unpaid bills in Illinois. Without the funds, districts are being forced to tap into other funds and put an even larger strain on their tax levies.

Knoxville School District 202 is waiting on $100,000 in transportation funds from as far back as six months. Now, the district has had to pick up the state’s slack.

“For us, it’s the majority of students to and from school every day,” School Superintendent Steve Wilder said. “That means the local taxpayers pay the bill up front. Unfortunately, this is routine now, and we’re able to work around the problem.”

It doesn’t help that the Knoxville schools only receive about 74 percent of the promised transportation grant money, Wilder said. General state aid to individual schools has also been prorated to the tune of 89 percent this year, he added. That means there are less funds to shift around to cover late grant payments.

“They’re two important issues that go hand in hand,” Wilder said.

The state has also cut outright some grant money for particular programs.

In 2010, ROWVA School District 208 in Oneida had 24 grant-funded programs. This year, the number is down to 14. The district lost a reading grant, a technology grant, a safety grant and a professional-development grant.

The district can get by without some of those grants. But for others, the district has to find alternative revenue. Newly implemented “Common Core” requirements have made professional development for teachers a necessity at ROWVA, School Superintendent Lloyd Little said.

“There’s certain necessities we need to offer: food, transportation, heating,” Little said. “We have to look at single purchases and see if we can weed them out.”

ROWVA is owed $150,000 in grant money, most from about five or six months ago. And because the state has shorted the funding of grants, general aid and teacher’s pensions, local districts have already seen the affects of locally funded pensions, one idea touted to help fix the unfunded pension crisis.

“They talk about wanting to pass pension (costs) to the districts. Actually, they already have,” he said. “They did it in a backdoor way.”